Animism : respecting the living world / Graham Harvey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harvey, Graham.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Animism.

Indigenous peoples--Religion.

Indigenous peoples.

Ethnoecology.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 248 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2006]

Summary:

How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements of their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In his new book, Graham Harvey explores indigenous and environmentalist spiritualities in which people celebrate relationships with other-than-human beings. He examines present and past animistic beliefs and practices of the Ojibwe, the Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans, revealing the diverse ways of being animist and of living respectfully within natural communities.

Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of animist worldviews and lifeways. He argues that animist beliefs can contribute significantly to contemporary debates about consciousness, cosmology, and environmentalism. In addition, he examines the colonialist ideologies and methodologies that have caused many academics to exclude the term "animism" from their critical vocabularies.

Contents:

Part I From Derogatory to Critical Term

1 From Primitives to Persons 3

Stahl's elements 3

Hume's sentiments 4

Frazer's trees 5

Tylor's spirits 5

Huxley's antagonism 9

Marett's powers 10

Freud's projections 10

Durkheim's totems 11

Mauss's gift 12

Piaget's development 14

Guthrie's anthropomorphism 15

Philosophers' panpsychism 17

Hallowell's other-than-human persons 17

Anthropologists' revisitation 20

Kohak's trees 22

Goodall's chimpanzees 24

Garuba's literature 25

Quinn's leavers 26

Environmentalists' participation 27

Re-cognising animisms 28

Part II Animist Case Studies

2 Ojibwe Language 33

Grammar 34

Stones 36

Thunder 38

Seasonal stories 40

Ceremonies 42

Tobacco greetings 43

Waswagoning 45

Legs and what's between them 46

Living well 48

3 Maori Arts 50

All our relations 52

Evolving relationships 52

Violence and passion 54

Tapu and noa 55

Marae-atea 57

Whare nui 58

Whare kai 60

Ancestral cannibalism 61

Animist construction 63

Enacting animism 64

4 Aboriginal Law and Land 66

Dreaming and Law 66

Expressing the Dreaming 71

Subjects and objects 73

Time and events 76

Visiting Alice 77

5 Eco-Pagan Activism 82

Defining Paganism 84

Defining Paganism's nature 85

Eco-Paganism on the road 88

Paganism off the road 90

Knowing nature 92

Gods, fairies and hedgehogs 94

Part III Animist Issues

6 Signs of Life and Personhood 99

Animals are people too 100

Bird persons 102

Fish persons 103

Plant persons 104

Stone persons 106

The Elements 107

Places 109

Things, artefacts, fetishes and masks 109

Humans are animals too 113

Animals might be human too 114

7 Death 115

Death happens-deliberately 115

Hunting and domesticating 116

Death is a transformation 117

Death rituals and myths 118

8 Spirits, Powers, Creators and Souls 121

Faeries and other spirits 122

Ancestors 125

Creators and tricksters 128

Life forces 129

Witchcraft substances and energies 132

Souls 135

Embodiment and spirituality 137

9 Shamans 139

Shamanic cosmologies 140

States of consciousness 142

Ecstasy, trance and possession 144

Hallucination or vision? 145

Eating 'souls' 146

Killing life 147

Surviving death 148

Shamans as mediators and healers 149

Animists' antagonists 150

Cultural nature and shamans as seers 151

10 Cannibalism 153

Accusations of cannibalism 153

Real cannibals? 154

Arens' myth 155

Compassionate cannibalism 157

Eating enemies 160

Cannibals as monsters, consumers and carers 162

Animism and cannibalism 163

11 Totems 164

Ojibwe clans 165

Updating the old totemism 166

Revisiting totemism 166

Revisiting other-than-humans 168

12 Elders and Ethics 169

The good life 171

Wisdom 173

Initiation 173

Part IV Animism's Challenges

13 Environmentalisms 179

Modernity's environmentalism 179

Depths of green 180

Ecofeminist particularity 182

Sitting and listening 184

Places 185

14 Consciousness 187

Solipsism 187

Consciousness matters 188

Cyber-consciousness 191

Knowing bodies matter 192

Relational consciousness 193

15 Philosophers and Persons 195

Personalist persons 196

Phenomenological persons 197

Feminist and queer persons 198

Free and wilful ethical persons 200

Other persons 200

Quantum persons 202

Post-dualist persons 203

Re-cognising modernity 205

Re-cognising animism 208

Depth and breadth, turtles and hedgehogs 210.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-236) and index.

ISBN:

0231137001

023113701X

OCLC:

60402159